O’Driscoll Names Strong ‘A’ Side

Hooker Niall Scannell will captain Munster ‘A’ for tomorrow night’s British & Irish Cup opener away to London Scottish with Head Coach Mick O’Driscoll featuring a mixture of experience and youth from the senior, academy and club ranks across the matchday squad.

The academy’s Liam O’Connor and Uruguayan international Mario Sagario will start on either side of Scannell in the front row while the academy’s Sean McCarthy is partnered by the returning Billy Holland in the second row. Holland will make his first provincial appearance after rehabbing a broken ankle sustained while representing Emerging Ireland during the summer’s Tbilisi Cup.

In an all-senior back row Jordan Coghlan and Shane Buckley start at 6 and 8 respectively and new signing Sean Doyle will line out in red for the first time when he starts at openside.

Just this week fly-half Bill Johnston joined the academy ranks and tomorrow’s trip to London will see the Clonmel native make his first Munster ‘A’ appearance when he partners Duncan Williams in the half-backs.

Cian Bohane and Matt D’Arcy join forces in the midfield while Ronan O’Mahony and the academy’s Stephen Fitzgerald take charge of the flanks with David Johnston completing a strong academy representation at full-back.

The mixture of experience and youth is again evident on the bench with O’Driscoll including a couple of emerging talents from the club game. Cork Constitution prop Brendan Quinlan is again included having featured for the province against Leinster ‘A’ in October while Cashel’s Sean O’Connor is included in his first ‘A’ side.

Munster ‘A’: David Johnston; Stephen Fitzgerald, Matt D’Arcy, Cian Bohane, Ronan O’Mahony; Bill Johnston, Duncan Williams; Liam O’Connor, Niall Scannell – capt., Mario Sagario; Sean McCarthy, Billy Holland; Jordan Coghlan, Sean Doyle, Shane Buckley.

Replacements from: Kevin O’Byrne, Rory Burke, Brendan Quinlan, Sean O’Connor, Conor Oliver, Ben Kilkenny, Cathal Sheridan, Darren Sweetnam, Dan Goggin.

London Scottish v Munster 'A', British & Irish Cup Pool 3, Friday November 13th at the Athletic Ground, Richmond – KO 7.45pm.

Read our match preview with Mick O’Driscoll here.

For updates on this game follow @munsterrugby #BICup on Twitter.